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Post by Iceman on Jul 31, 2005 14:49:48 GMT -5
The "Nature Boy" Ric "Whoooo" Flair was WCW's first Heavyweight Champion. Lex Lugar had the belt second though in WCW History. Flair had it for 7 months and the only reason he lost it was because he was fired/quit from WCW (then went to WWF with the WCW belt), then it was vacant. Then Lex Luger defeated Barry Windham for the vacated title. Just to let you all know a nice little history incase you didn't know.
But does anybody know why he quit/was fired from WCW in 1991 then left to WWF?
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Post by tysontomko on Jul 31, 2005 21:04:39 GMT -5
To my knowledge they him to do a different storyline or persona he didn't want to do?
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Post by Ric Flair 4 Ever on Aug 4, 2005 2:29:31 GMT -5
The biggest reason Flair left was because of a contract dispute.They did'nt feel he was worth that much money anymore and obviously Flair did think he was.However,Jim Herd (WCW executive vice president then) would find out differently.As chants of "we want Flair" occurred on a nightly basis would prove Flair was still over in WCW.Shortly after this rediculous move by Herd ,he was fired.....thankfully.This is the same guy that wanted Ric to cut his hair,put in an earring and rename himself Spartacus.No I am not making this up.After 7 world titles to that point,this doofus wanted to change Slick Ric into Spartacus..........complete with sword and sheild.It should be pointed out ,that Herd had quite a lot of wrestling knowledge and expertise before becoming WCW's captain.............................he worked for Pizza Hut.And nothing screams wrestling industry knowledge like Pizza Hut.
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Post by tysontomko on Aug 4, 2005 11:43:46 GMT -5
The biggest reason Flair left was because of a contract dispute.They did'nt feel he was worth that much money anymore and obviously Flair did think he was.However,Jim Herd (WCW executive vice president then) would find out differently.As chants of "we want Flair" occurred on a nightly basis would prove Flair was still over in WCW.Shortly after this rediculous move by Herd ,he was fired.....thankfully.This is the same guy that wanted Ric to cut his hair,put in an earring and rename himself Spartacus.No I am not making this up.After 7 world titles to that point,this doofus wanted to change Slick Ric into Spartacus..........complete with sword and sheild.It should be pointed out ,that Herd had quite a lot of wrestling knowledge and expertise before becoming WCW's captain.............................he worked for Pizza Hut.And nothing screams wrestling industry knowledge like Pizza Hut. Jim Herd was not the sharpest knife in the draw!! |
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Post by Iceman on Aug 7, 2005 2:10:23 GMT -5
This is the same guy that wanted Ric to cut his hair,put in an earring and rename himself Spartacus.No I am not making this up. After 7 world titles to that point,this doofus wanted to change Slick Ric into Spartacus..........complete with sword and sheild.It should be pointed out ,that Herd had quite a lot of wrestling knowledge and expertise before becoming WCW's captain.............................he worked for Pizza Hut.And nothing screams wrestling industry knowledge like Pizza Hut. That's crazy, I never know that he wanted to make Flair Spartacus, that's funny. Maybe for a Halloween Havoc special but that's about it. The Nature Boy is for ever. "Whooooo" |
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Post by "The Tie-Dye Dream" Ricky Cool on Oct 12, 2005 16:47:32 GMT -5
On a side note The Belt Luger actual held was NOT the actual WCW World Title Belt.
That belt went with Ric Flair to the WWF.
You see not only was Herd dumb enough to fire Flair, but he was so increbabliy thick that when Flair offerd to sell WCW the big gold belt
(Which Flair had put a Couple $1000 towards)
He refused, and because Flair owned the belt he was able to turn up on WWF Television with the WCW World Title Belt and proclaim himself The Real Worlds Champion.
While Luger ended up with I belive The International Heveywaight Title Belt with a Picec of Sticky tape over The word International.
And to top it all off I do belive that the comentators made out it was the original belt when it looked nothing like either the WCW Belt or the old NWA Belt.
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Post by Iceman on Oct 19, 2005 1:27:11 GMT -5
Nice, that's pretty cool how Flair kept the real WCW Belt and even brought it over to WWF which worked well I thought.
I actually thought if it was the real WCW Belt and he wouldn't give it back, then WCW would of took some legal action, but if Flair paid for most of the Belt, then yeah, I guess it was really his. That's even cool and great dedication on Flair's part to wanna put his own money into the Belt in the first place.
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Post by Scott Joyce on Jan 8, 2006 15:56:56 GMT -5
Flair utterly hated Eric Bischoff and even had Arn Anderson stand guard at the door while he attacked EB by slapping him and chasing him around the room.
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Post by Iceman on Jan 10, 2006 21:36:30 GMT -5
Flair utterly hated Eric Bischoff and even had Arn Anderson stand guard at the door while he attacked EB by slapping him and chasing him around the room. Yeah, I never knew Bischoff and Flair hated each other so much until I read it in the other thread here, thanks. I guess that had to be part of Flair leaving or wanting too. |
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Alpha Clash
Wrestling Announcer
Nothing is impossible. Anything can happen with enough blood, sweat & tears.
Posts: 1,239
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Post by Alpha Clash on Jan 22, 2006 9:50:22 GMT -5
Far as I remember, the NWA belt Ric held (the WCW title was the cheap quick belt they made for Luger at Bash 91) he bought back around 85 to replace the old flag belt, which has been redone for Jarrett & TNA. Ric bought the belt with his own money and even put insurance on it. Herd called up Flair and told him he was sending Doug Dillinger over to get the belt. Ric told Herd that Doug had better bring a check for $20,000 to get the belt. Herd refused, so Ric took the belt to the WWF. As for why he left, it's been said many times, particularly by Lex Luger, that the plan originally was for Ric to drop the belt to Lex at the Bash in 91. Ric wanted a cash guarantee that he would still be in the main event picture, even though he wasn't World Champion. Ric wanted the money as a guarantee he would get the belt back at Starrcade. I believe it was a 2% raise or something real small. Regardless, WCW wouldn't negotiate so Ric left.
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Post by Dan Poutsma on May 6, 2006 21:25:50 GMT -5
Herd and Flair had come to a stalemate with regard to contract negotiations. Herd (insultingly) wanted to cut his pay nearly in half and have him drop the belt while Ric wanted to continue making the same amount of money. Herd initially wanted him to lose the title to Lex Luger, but then changed his mind and decided he should put over Barry Windham instead. Flair said he was going to do it, but then Herd changed his mind yet again and decided to just fire him, strip him of the title, and have Luger beat Windham to win the championship at the Great American Bash PPV.
The controversy surrounding the gold belt:
According to Flair, after Herd fired him he told him he was going to send WCW's head of security Doug Dellinger to retrieve the belt. Flair said fine, but make sure he brings $25,000 plus interest to cover the deposit that Ric originally put down when he first won the old NWA domed globe belt (which preceded the big gold that Jim Crockett paid to have made) and which was never returned to him. Herd basically told him to stick it, so Flair in turn told him the same, kept the belt, and eventually shipped it to Vince McMahon. Left without a belt for the PPV, WCW took Dusty Rhodes' old PWF (Florida promotion) belt, slapped a plate on it that read "World Championship Wrestling", and temporarily used it for the World title until Reggie Parks finally finished completing a brand new WCW World championship belt.
Following the backlash at the PPV where fans chanted "We Want Flair" with great anger, Herd realized he had made a mistake and decided it was probably in his best interests to try and get Flair to come back. He offered him twice the money or maybe even more of what Ric had been asking for, but Flair turned him down and decided to try his luck with the WWF instead. That September, after several weeks of Bobby Heenan cutting promos on TV with the gold NWA/WCW belt, he finally made his first appearance as the "Real World Champion".
Obviously, WCW was not pleased with watching their former champion flaunt the belt around on the competition's TV and eventually decided to sue. Before they could take any action though, they had to make sure they had all of their bases covered because despite the fact that Flair was no longer WCW World champion, the NWA (which although the name was no longer being mentioned on WCW shows, continued to exist as a body of promoters independant of WCW) decided to keep recognizing him as their champion even after Herd fired him. So legally, Flair could still be billed as the NWA World champion on WWF shows if the NWA and Vince agreed to it. So right around the same time Flair came in, WCW got the NWA to side with them by making Herd the NWA president and stripping Ric of the title. They then took the WWF to court over their use of the belt and got an injunction that prohibited them from using/showing the actual belt itself or any belt that was similar in likeness. In January 1992, Herd was forced to resign from the helm of WCW, and in due time, they and Flair eventually came to a settlement where they agreed to pay him his money in exchange for him returning the gold belt.
Later that same year, WCW brought the NWA name back to their shows and re-introduced the gold belt as the NWA title. After approximately a year of WCW recognizing both a WCW World champion (using the Reggie Parks made belt) and an NWA World champion (using the bigger, more prestigous looking gold belt), they severed ties with the NWA in September 1993 and after Rick Rude beat Flair for the belt at the Fall Brawl PPV, they briefly called it just "The Gold Belt" before announcing that Rude had come to be recognized as World heavyweight champion by "WCW International". That led to the promotion having a WCW World champion and a WCW International World champion until the titles were eventually unified at the Clash of the Champions in June 1994 when WCW champ Flair beat International champ Sting. After that, the Parks belt that had been used since '91 was never seen again and the gold belt (or various copies of it in the end times of the promotion) was used for the WCW title until the company's final show in March 2001 and beyond as part of the Invasion storyline following the WWF buyout.
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Warrior
Cook for Wrestlers
.:I'm more Ultimaniac than Savage:.
Posts: 81
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Post by Warrior on May 6, 2006 21:58:07 GMT -5
Just to note; I loved the WCW World Heavyweight title belt that was used by Sting, Vader and that. Thought it was a beautiful looking belt! EDIT:This should be better, scaled it down abit, reduced the quality and decided to host it on my PB...  |
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Post by Dan Poutsma on May 7, 2006 15:28:45 GMT -5
Yes, I thought it was a very nice belt too. As I mentioned, it was made by Reggie Parks after Flair bolted with the big gold in '91 and was first held by Luger (who, in the meantime, temporarily used Dusty's PWF belt with a plate slapped on it before Reggie completed it) and then Sting, Vader, Ron Simmons, Vader again, Sting again, Vader again, and then finally Flair until it was dropped in favor of the more impressive looking big gold following the unification of the titles.
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Post by on Jul 9, 2006 7:45:07 GMT -5
this belt i agree is nice but i think the big gold is the best looking belt in history and and also prestige wise it has a lot of value and so i see why wcw would want to use it
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Post by Iceman on Jul 9, 2006 11:20:43 GMT -5
Wow Alpha then Dan, lol, didn't know all that, you guys really know your history, good deal. Well Flair was sure dedicated to put his own money and that much ($20,000 -$25,000) into it. Of course he wouldn't want to give it up so easly. Must of been hard for Flair to still give it up because it had so much sentimental value to him as well, that was actually nice of him to be willing to sell it to them when you think about it since he had it made and bought it. It was funny when he brought it over to the WWF and said he was the real Champion with it, lol. Never knew WCW took it to court even.
P.S. This Herd guy was really out of touch with reality as far as Wrestling goes. Willing to lose Flair to the WWE was a huge mistake making the WWF stronger, geez, Flair's still Wrestling today, and without having to change his image to Spartacus, lol. He sure caused a lot of problems. Who hired him and why did it take so long for them to fire him/him to resign? Lol.
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